Our "New" 1996 Ski Nautique

[BadCatBrewer]

Me and the wife drove from Atlanta to Charlotte NC last Thursday to buy a 1996 Ski Nautique Signature Edition. 533 hours.
We are coming from a 1997 Mastercraft Prostar 190 and we are really excited about our upgrade!
My short todo list:

• Tune-up - in progress
• Refresh swim platform - in progress
• Upgrade stereo from M3170 to something current (Clarion M508?)
• Replace decking on the trailer
• Troubleshoot and repair the transom shower.
• Troubleshoot and repair the heater
• Remove CD Changer

[NautiqueJeff]

Looks great!

[Nautiquehunter]

Are you coming to the Regatta on Lanier June 25th?

[nautique210]

Nice find. Looks great.

[SilentSeven]

hehe...."upgrade"....

....from a 1997 Mastercraft Prostar 190

Nice boat. More plcs please!

For you, what makes this better than your Mastercraft?

[BadCatBrewer]

For you, what makes this better than your Mastercraft?

Mostly, it is the finishes like the step down on the side rail, the three piece back bench and storage. The general setup of the interior make the boat feel bigger. I think it rides better, but I am still new to this boat.
In the late 70's, my uncle pulled six of us up behind his Ski Nautique, and from that point on, I was always really impressed with Nautiques.
To be fair, our Mastercraft was a family boat, shared with siblings, nieces, nephews, and few of them showed the boat the same kind of love that my family did, so it was driven hard and put away wet too many times. Still, that Mastercraft did hold up well for 24 years.

[SilentSeven]

Cool - totally get that.

Back in the day, I owned an 82 Mastercraft and my ski buddy had a Nautique 2001. My Mastercraft skied 10x better than his Nautique did - wake was much flatter, had better power (hehe...it was a powerslot) but it wasn't nearly as nice of boat. You could really tell that Correct Craft had been building boats for a long time - the Nautique rode chop better, flexed less and had meaningful small details (like tie offs...and storage!). Fast forward to my next boat - a 97 Ski bubblebutt - and by then Nautique had cleaned up the ski wake while keeping all the good boatness. I was sold and here I am now...on my second Nautique.

[HollywoodBall]

Keep us posted on the trailer work... I'm going to be refreshing a nearly identical trailer this summer once I get the boat docked.